Originally Posted by
joebrew
That's what I'm asking - if the sprints are short and the recovery is long, can one not fully recover for the next day?
I understand the principle of "no grey zone" training - things should either be black (hard) or white (easy), not somewhere in between. But to the extent that one is fit enough for a 2/3 hour ride to be considered "recovery," can't a few 5-second sprints also be considered "recovery?"
It's not the length of the ride that makes it recovery, it's the intensity.
Think of it this way. Say you're a weight lifter who did a hard chest workout on Monday. You're going to want to rest your chest as much as possible on Tuesday to give it time to recover. Let's say you do an hour of cardio on Tuesday. Would it make sense to do a quick 1-rep max bench press at the end of that hour?